Tuesday 1st to Thursday 3rd November 2022
Posted: 05/11/2022 12:58
Tuesday 1st. Overnight rain left a legacy of low cloud but this quickly cleared to allow flying to commence around 1115 hrs, the moderate to fresh SW'ly slowly declining to become light to moderate as it veered into the WSW. The first 7 of the day's 10 launches resulted in flights of 30 minutes of more with 3 of these over an hour, before the declining wind speed put an end to hill and wave soaring. The pilots enjoying an hour or more were Bob Calvert in his Discus 2ct, 3:58, Bill Payton/Dave McKinney in Bill's DG1000t, 2:17 and Tony Drury flying K21 solo, exactly an hour. The two latter flights were in hill lift, although Bill and Dave made a number of excursions out to the northwest and south of Thirsk, climbing to a maximum altitude of 2,700' asl but also having a number of low points. Tony concentrated on using the hill lift, generally maintaining 900' QFE using the main bowl lift but including a trip to High Paradise Farm, a similar flight pattern being achieved by Graham Cooney and Tony Smith during their 55 minute flight in the same glider although at somewhat higher heights. Bob Calvert was the only pilot to contact significant wave, climbing to 3,900' asl over Gormire before judicious use of his engine via Thirsk and Ripon led him to his best, if slow, climb around Masham that took him to 12,000' asl. A slow descent via Leyburn, Aysgarth and Pateley Bridge followed as he made his way back to Sutton.
Wednesday 2nd. An approaching depression led to a rapid deterioration in the weather, initially sunny skies quickly clouding over, with rain arriving around 1400 hrs, the S'ly wind rapidly increasing from moderate to become strong, with gusts of over 50 kts. Only 3 flights were possible before conditions became unflyable, all having extended flights using lift off the southern ridge with some weak wave assistance. Malcolm Guard in his Ka6 was first off runway 20, having 1:26 maintaining 1,400-1,800' QFE, while Guy Hartland/C Stadward in K21 JVZ had 50 minutes in the same area, climbing to a maximum altitude of 3,300' asl (2,400' QFE) over Kilburn. The day's flying activities were completed by visitor Patrick Fowler in his Astir who had 1:11 before the day's flying came to an end.
Thursday 3rd. A sunny and light wind day resulted in 12 ATs off runway 20 with Rob Bottomley in his Discus bt, visitors Malcolm Guard in his Ka6 and Patrick Fowler in his Astir all having 2 flights each, the balance of launches being in K21 JVZ. The sunny weather did result in some weak thermal activity, with Malcolm making the most of them, resulting in a flight of 56 minutes, An initial period of maintaining 2,800' asl off tow some 3.5 km SSW of site in what appeared to be weak wave, was followed by a series of weak thermals just to the S of site that kept Malcolm at 7-800' QFE for the remainder of his flight. Weak thermals were also used by Rob Bottomley on his second flight of the day to record 31 minutes, but these were the only flights to exceed 30 minutes. Malcolm had 25 minutes on his second flight, again with the help of weak thermal while Paul Whitehead, had the longest K21 flight with 18 minutes solo. The Falke was busy with an O/R to Ripon followed by a visit and landing at Pocklington before a return flight later in the day.
This blog describes a snippet of life at the Yorkshire Gliding Club. Why not take a flight and try it yourself, or we can teach you to fly as a full club member.